Learning in Depth: January 2011

Friday, January 21, 2011

Ukraine Study

This is a little study on the country of Ukraine. It is designed for younger elementary children and has lots of hands on activities. The books were designed to be read aloud, but if you have a reader your child could read independently. This should take about 40 minutes each day and last about 7 weeks if you spend two days a week on learning about Ukraine.

Day 1

Europe Framed Continent Puzzle 38pc and explore Ukraine with Google Earth

Day 2

People Around the World pg 51-52

Window On The World (pb) pg 148-149

Fool of the World and the Flying Ship

Color map http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/ukrain/ukrain-d.pdf

Day 3

Make Cookie map of Ukraine. I made a large cookie cake and cut it to the shape of Ukraine. The boys then decorate the cookie cake and eat different parts of the country for several days.

Day 4

Rechenka's Eggs (Paperstar)

Egg dying
http://www.quillingpatch.com/2007/03/07/ukrainian-easter-egg-decorating-art-of-pysanky/http://www.learnpysanky.com/

Day 5

Make flag out of construction paper

Play Boomchyk's Kitchen and the Color Game at http://www.ukrainianpower.com/games.html

Day 6

How the Animals Built their House and Other Stories

Dance videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74bUC15XobE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRFUmI0C_W4&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUPgbHDe9s

Day 7

Europe Framed Continent Puzzle 38pc

Alphabet game, zoo animal game http://www.ukrainianpower.com/games.html

Day 8

The Turnip

Ukranian Holidays http://www.kiev.info/about/holidays.htm

Kupala – jumping over fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5M_MPOuN-w

Day 9

The Fox Judge and Other Tales

Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bolTmpoW5Zg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SVMnoyaOWc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1oMKa-BSvU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stA_7gL9-ZE&feature=related

Day 10

Practice Old Woman Kutsia and fire jumping (pretend fire of course)http://www.geocities.com/childrenfolklore/games_ukraine_irina03.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5M_MPOuN-w

Day 11

Make costumes out of things found around the house - http://folkdance.byu.edu/PDF/Ukraine.pdf

Day 12

Watch Ukranian TV http://wwitv.com/portal.htm?http://wwitv.com/television/index.html?http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b2613.htm

Day 13

Make paska bread, cruellers, apple cake

Day 14

Feast – make cabbage rolls, pyrogies, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, noodles with cabbage, and chicken kiev

Play games (fire jumping/Old Woman Kutsia) and wear costumes

Field trip to festival

Cabbage rolls, pyrogies, mushroom sauce on mashed potatoes, noodles with cabbage, paska bread, cruellershttp://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/5892/Recipe2.html, chicken kievhttp://foodgeeks.com/recipes/recipe/19959,ukrainian_chicken_kyiv_with_mushroom_sauce.phtml, sauerkraut, apple cake http://foodgeeks.com/recipes/recipe/19902,ukrainian_apple_cake_yabluchnyk.phtml

Also, I have created a playlist at YouTube of a video tour of Ukraine. You can link to it here. I don't have this scheduled in, but I put it on for my boys a couple times while they age lunch.

You can also view the playlist here:

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Arctic Study

This study is suited to little ones around 5-8 years old. For this unit study we read books, enjoyed activities, and watched videos. This study should take 4-6 weeks to complete.

We have several spines or text book type books that we use in our study of the world. For the Arctic we used:

People Around the World - This book contained a couple pages about the Arctic. We enjoyed the pictures. The reading may be a bit over the heads of Kindergarteners, but I used this book mostly for the pictures and I could read the content on the page and paraphrase in a way they could understand.
Children Just Like Me - This book is a wonderful book for young children. It is full of pictures of children around the world and it shows little pictures about the child's favorite food, school, family, toys, etc. I had purchased this book years before my boys were born. They have enjoyed it for years. For the Arctic we read about 2 different children.
Window On The World (pb) - We have a mission focus in our study of the world. This book gives insight into the spiritual needs of different countries. We read about Greenland.

I read a series of books to my boys. My youngest son wasn't interested in the story, but my 6 year old was able to listen to the stories. Basically they are the story of a missionary couple who went to the Arctic to witness of Jesus. These are chapter books and are good for a child who doesn't need pictures when listening to a story.

I read one or two chapters a day.

We did a variety of fun activities:

Make a polar bear out of marshmallows This activity was loads of fun for both of my boys. The polar bears didn't last long. They were eaten within an hour of their creation.
Make a blubber mitten This was a fun, yet messy activity. Read the directions carefully. We didn't do it correctly, but still had fun.
Make a salt map of Greenland. This was fun. Once we created the salt map we painted it and labeled the parts of the country.
Paint a flag of Greenland. We painted one entire paper red and cut it in half. We then cut out a half circle of the halved red paper. We then just glued the red pieces on a white paper.

Videos were an important part of the study. We watched several on Youtube, but also watched a couple movies.

Arctic Tale - This was a cute movie totally appropriate for my young children. It is a story of animal wildlife in the Arctic.
Nanook of the North (1922) - This is a wonderful old movie. It is a silent film of a Inuit/Eskimo family. Since there was no sound we talked about what was happening as the film progressed.
Inuit Dance on Youtube
Inuit Throat Singing on Youtube - This was quite interesting to watch. We did attempt to sing like that, but were unsuccessful.
Greenland videos on Youtube. We especially liked this one called a Cold Day in Nuuk.
Greenland TV online was interesting. We didn't understand the language, but enjoyed watching the news and seeing what was important to people in that part of the world.

So how do you use all this? I pretty much started out with a text book as an introduction and then started with the read alouds. There was no set schedule. The activities and videos were interspersed throughout our study. I didn't find any readers that would suite my son for this topic so we used other readers while we were studying the Arctic. I did have my son do some language arts activities like writing a story about polar bears during our study.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Native Americans

This study was designed for little ones who were Kindergarten/1st grade age, but it can be adapted for older children.

Books I read aloud to them:

Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears   This is a story of a girl and her family as they were forced to move. I highly recommend this book.

North American Indian Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)  This is a collection of various tales. I don't recommend them unless you have an older child. They were a little too complex for my boys who were five and six at the time.

While I read to my boys they enjoyed coloring in their Indian Tribes of North America Coloring Books.

Reading Books:  My older son read these books to me for his reading.

Little Runner of the Longhouse (I Can Read Book 2)  This is a wonderful story of a little boy who lives in a longhouse and tries to figure out how he can get more maple sugar candy.

Soft Step and Bright Eyes: A Tale of Native American Life (No. 4 in Suzanne Tate's History Series)
This is a short book with pictures

The Sign of the Beaver. This is a chapter book without pictures. I didn't use this for my unit study, but my son used it as a reading book later in the school year. It is probably a fourth or fifth grade reading level. It would make a great read aloud book too.

Activities:

The book More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (A Kid's Guide series) is a necessity if you are studying Native Americans. It is full of art and craft actvities as well as information. Most of our time studying Native Americans was spent in this book. We made tepees, wigwams, wampum, clothing, anklets, armbands, headdresses, food, and more!

We made a Northwest Coast Punch-Out Indian Village (Punch-Out Paper Toys). The punch-out kit made a canoe, totems, people figures, and a longhouse.

Pictures:

Here are a few pictures showing some of our activities for our Native American unit study.

Here we learned about different colors of paint and designs and what they could mean. The boys chose the colors they wanted on their face.

We made paper mache rattle instruments to be used during dancing. After the paper mache had dried the boys painted them.

We made headdresses out of cereal boxes, feathers, paper, and little cotton balls.

They made something for the baby too.

At the end of our study we had a feast. Here my son is helping make fry bread. Fry bread was dough fried with some sugar on top.

Before our feast day we had prepared Native American costumes. The breechcloth is made of a long piece of material tied on with a string. They had shorts on underneath though.

Here we are enjoying our feast. We had three different kinds of popcorn, toasted seeds, eggs, fry bread, raisins, and maple sugar candy. It was a hit!

After the feast the boys danced with their instruments they made.

Following the dancing we played a couple of Native American games. Here we are playing a game with decorated popsicle sticks.

To finish off our feast day and unit study of Native Americans we had foot races. It was winter so we had foot races inside.

We found ideas and information for the activities pictured from More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (A Kid's Guide series).

Thursday, January 13, 2011

PreHistory from a Christian Perspective

This is about a 6 week look at prehistory from a Christian perspective. Not all books or sources are Christian. Secular sources don't prevent me from looking at it from a Christian perspective though. We did history twice a week for about 40 minutes each time.

Day 1 Adam and eve kicked out of garden

Read story of Adam in Eve in Read-N-Grow Picture Bible: A 1,872-Picture Adventure from Creation to Revelation

Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVtS05uAtSI&feature=related

Make a peppermint patty Adam and Eve. Cover them with chocolate to demonstrate spiritual death.

Day 2 Cain and Abel story

Read the story of Cain and Abel in Read-N-Grow Picture Bible: A 1,872-Picture Adventure from Creation to RevelationRead Cain and Seth's family story from Josephus: The Complete Works

Read about Jubal and Tubal Cain from Josephus: The Complete Works

Kids will draw picture of story and I read it and we discuss it.

Timeline: jubal and tubal cain on timeline.date 3313

Methusaleh on timeline 3313, enoch on timeline 3378.

Day 3

Read The Usborne Book of Living Long Ago (Explainers) pg 2-3, 26-27